Reflecting on the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly

Beloved in Christ,

A party of 21 Nebraska Synod voting members attended the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly this past week. What follows are my reflections on the week together in Phoenix and what I believe this means for the future of our church. 

Elections

• The Rev. Yehiel Curry, Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, was elected to be the next Presiding Bishop of the ELCA. You can learn a bit more about Bishop-Elect Curry at the video below.

• The Rev. Lucille "CeCee" Mills was elected to be the next Secretary of the ELCA. Learn more about Pastor Mills here.
• Elections for the ELCA Church Council and various committees & task forces were also held. PMA Matt Schur, a member of Southwood Lutheran Church in Lincoln, was elected to a six year term on the ELCA Church Council. 

Social Teachings, Constitutional Amendments, Memorials, and Resolutions

• We adopted our newest social statement, Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-Being of All. 
• We approved editorial updates to the 2009 statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust. These updates reflect contemporary legal definitions and actions for all marriage relationships and do not change the essence of the statement itself. We will begin a reconsideration process for the statement this fall, which will be addressed by the 2028 Churchwide Assembly. 
• We heard the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church’s final report along with the ELCA Church Council’s response to the report. The CRLC’s work also found its way into some of our constitutional revisions, many of which were debated in great detail in the course of the Assembly's work.
• Memorial D4 "Stand for Palestinian Rights and End to Occupation of Palestine" Adopted 742-38
• Calls for the ELCA, its members, congregations, synods and churchwide units to advocate for human rights and a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis by supporting policies that end the occupation, to join the World Council of Churches in calling for an immediate end to the mass killing in Gaza, to urge the Office of the Presiding Bishop to petition U.S. leaders to recognize and act to end the genocide against Palestinians, halt military aid to Israel used in Gaza, and support Palestinian statehood and U.N. membership, to reject forced displacement and settler violence, to promote prayerful engagement and solidarity with those working for justice and peace, including ELCA partners in the region, and to amplify the voices of local partners and strengthen the ELCA’s advocacy through the Office of the Presiding Bishop, the Middle East and North Africa Desk, the Sumud initiative, and the Witness in Society team, among other offices.
• Memorial A3 - "Indian Boarding School Remembrance" Adopted 779-7 
• Calls for the church to observe the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools annually, develop educational programs and materials surrounding the history and ELCA’s complicity with Indian boarding schools, and provide ongoing recognition and support for the continued work to locate all known records regarding the ELCA predecessor churches’ involvement with Indian boarding and day schools, among other actions.
• Memorial B14 - "Consideration of Recommendation 1 of the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church" Adopted 646-144
• Calls for the church to acknowledge the importance of accountability in addressing racism within all structures of the ELCA, to affirm the work of the Strategy Toward Authentic Diversity Advisory Team, to request that the Church Council continue to work with the team to clarify the nature of mutual accountability, and to direct the Church Council to add a timeline to its actions taken and to provide progress updates to this church with a final report by fall 2027, including possible constitutional changes.
• We received the Common Statement on the Filioque. "Reception" means more than just hearing a report - it means we affirm the work that our ecumenical partners have done and will consider with care their recommendations related to bridging gaps between Lutheran and Orthodox churches.
• The Assembly approved an amendment setting a goal for youth (14-17) and young adults (ages 18-30) to make up 20% of Churchwide councils, committees, and task forces. 
• Special thanks go to Deacon Timothy Siburg of the Nebraska Synod for his service on the Churchwide Assembly's Memorials Committee. 

Worship, Prayer, Spiritual Practices, Speakers & Presentations

• The Assembly received the final reports of both Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and ELCA Secretary Sue Rothmeyer, who were both celebrated after their presentations and at a banquet on Thursday evening. 
• Other speakers and presenters included Presiding Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism; Bishop-elect Imad Mousa Dawood Haddad of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; Rector Chad Rimmer of Lenoir-Rhyne University/Southern Theological Seminary, and many others. 
• Daily worship was a highlight for many of the Assembly attendees. We heard from a variety of preachers: Bishop Elizabath Eaton; the Rev. Imad Mousa Dawood Haddad, bishop-elect, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, General Secretary and President of the National Council of Churches; and the Rev. Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA executive for administration.
• On Tuesday evening, the ELCA's staff for Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations invited the Assembly to observe a powwow involving traditional dancers from a number of different tribes and nations. 
• On Thursday evening, AMMPARO hosted an impactful Candlelight Prayer Vigil for refugees and immigrants. 
• Voting members often paused for prayer before votes and even during plenary discussion.

Reflections

This is my second Churchwide Assembly, and it was a very different experience than my first (2022, as a replacement voting member and as bishop-elect). Some of you may remember that 2022 was a very difficult year for the ELCA. We were still working our way through COVID-related trauma and also struggled to deal with trauma within the church, some of it self-inflicted. I remember the plenary room feeling very anxious throughout the 2022 Churchwide Assembly; in 2025, anxiety was not nearly so rampant, even as we considered major leadership elections and further work we need to do as a church. We celebrated the ministries of Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Secretary Sue Rothmeyer, giving thanks for their good work as leaders of this church. We acknowledged that changing structures and structural issues in this denomination is difficult, and that there is much work left to do, but I believe we also allowed ourselves to acknowledge that there are signs of hope that may not have been so apparent three years ago. 

I knew this was going to be a momentous Churchwide Assembly. I wasn't prepared for how the election of the presiding bishop was going to affect me emotionally. When Bishop Yehiel Curry was announced as the next presiding bishop of this church, I found myself tearing up. Some of that, I believe, is knowing the quality and character of our Presiding Bishop-Elect. Some of that is knowing what this election means for our church. Just as Presiding Bishop Eaton's election spoke volumes in 2013, so do the elections of Bishop Yehiel Curry and Pastor CeCee Mills in 2025. The repercussions of these elections will ripple through this church for years to come. So, yes: I had a very quiet little crying session as we stood and applauded the election of our new Presiding Bishop, and I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one who did, either. 

I asked our voting members to summarize their Churchwide Assembly experience in three words. Mine are: Changing - Determined - Hopeful. We are not the church we should be - not yet. But we are also not the church we were - not anymore. As a GenXer, I know I'm supposed to be suspicious of institutions (if not outright dismissive), but I continue to see signs of the Spirit's work in this church throughout all of its expressions. God is up to something in this church: from the smallest congregations to the Churchwide office, there are people who just will not give up on this church, and I saw that determination in abundance more than once during the Churchwide Assembly. It reminded me of the quote that Rector Chad Rimmer used to close his presentation: 

“This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road; all does not yet gleam with glory, but all is being purified.” Luther, Defense and Explanation of All the Articles (1521)

"This is not the end, but it is the road." Amen, Brother Martin. Here in Nebraska, it's good to be on that road together with all of you. 

Bishop Scott

Sermon for Maundy Thursday: "Unsurrendering Love"

Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged for treason by the order of Adolf Hitler at Flossenburg Concentration Camp on 9 April 1945 - eighty years ago last week.  I have been continually challenged and comforted by Bonhoeffer’s writings and the stories of his life, most notably his choice in 1939 to return to Germany and continue his work in the Confessing Church, resisting both the Nazi Party and the majority of German Christians who had fallen in line with the government.  He had the option to remain in the United States, but Bonhoeffer insisted, “I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.”  Within months Bonhoeffer was a co-consiprator against Hitler, working to smuggle Germany Jews out of the country, using his ecumenical contacts to try and alert the Allies to the presence of an active resistance within Nazi Germany, and providing counsel to the people who were involved in several plots against Hitler from within the military intelligence community.  Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943; after a lengthy period of imprisonment and interrogation,  Bonhoeffer and others were sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, then to Flossenburg, where they were executed.    

In a July 1944 letter from Tegel Prison in Berlin to his friend Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer wrote something I want to tie to the gospel reading for this service:

“Christians... have no last line of escape available from earthly tasks and difficulties into the eternal, but, like Christ himself, they must drink the earthly cup to the dregs, and only in their doing so is the crucified and risen Lord with them, and they crucified and risen with Christ.  This world must not be prematurely written off...”

“Like Christ himself, [Christians] must drink the earthly cup to the dregs.”  In the Gospel of John it is written, “Having loved his own who were in the world, [Jesus] loved them to the end.”  This commitment to see things through “to the end” is, I believe, the essence of what gathers us here tonight.  

Tonight is Maundy Thursday.  “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum, “commandment.”  We call it “Maundy Thursday” because of what Jesus said to and did for his disciples on his last night together with them.  He kneeled and washed their feet, a chore generally regarded as beneath even the lowliest servants.  He broke bread with his friends, even though one of them would leave the meal to betray Jesus to the authorities who wished him dead.  He commanded them:  “love one another as I have loved you.”  Then Jesus continued to love his disciples to the very end of his life; abandoned, rejected, scorned, humiliated, flogged, crucified and executed.  These are the deeds of the One who loves his followers to the dregs, to the very end, to the bottom of the bitter cup.  

This is not an easy thing for us to gather and remember.  It is a far cry from Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem that we celebrated on Sunday.  Even the crucifixion is easier to handle if it’s interpreted in a certain way.  I remember a shirt I used to wear that had a picture of Jesus doing a push-up with the cross on his back with a “Lord’s Gym” logo underneath.  The idea, of course, was that Jesus took on the cross the way the Cornhuskers take on the Hawkeyes, or Reál Madrid takes on Barcelona:  the ultimate rivalry, the grudge match, the game in which the good guys must emerge triumphant. 

No one comes out triumphant on Maundy Thursday.  Judas left to betray Jesus to the authorities. Peter and the rest of the disciples fell asleep while Jesus prayed and ran when Jesus was arrested.  And Jesus?  He surrendered.  Utterly.  No resistance, no protest of innocence.  Jesus let himself be taken into the hands of authorities who would rather see him dead than hear any more about the relentless, unconditional love and mercy he had been preaching.  

There’s only one thing Jesus did not surrender on his last night with his disciples:  his love.  The gospel of John tells us, “Having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the end.”  
He surrendered his privilege when he knelt and washed his disciples’ feet.  
He surrendered his trust when Judas betrayed him with a kiss. 
He surrendered his dignity when the priests and authorities questioned and tortured him.   
He surrendered his power and his authority when he was paraded through the streets and crucified, an execution meant for the deadliest enemies of the state.  
But Jesus would not surrender his love for his disciples, then or now. 

This is what it means to “love to the end.”  This is what makes Jesus’ commandment a “new” commandment.  There was nothing new about the commandment to “love one another”— that had been one of the two great commandments since the time of the Exodus.  What makes Jesus’ commandment “new” is Jesus’ living example of the lengths to which that love will go.  God will give up everything else in God’s unsurrendering love for sinners.  This is not the sort of love you find in a Hallmark Christmas movie or a Harlequin romance novel - that’s the sort of love the Greeks called eros, and while there’s nothing at all wrong to have that kind of love, it’s not the word that’s used here. The Greek word used in this chapter of John is agape. Its Hebrew equivalent is chesed. It’s the sort of love that sacrifices for the sake of the beloved. In the Psalms we translate it as “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love,” and above all else, it does. not. surrender.  Ever.  This love drinks the earthly cup to the dregs.  This love goes all the way to the end.

This message of love hasn't been getting a lot of air time recently in this part of the world.  You and I both know that there are a lot of people right now who insist that there are limits and conditions to God's love, and that there are limits and conditions on how God's church should be living out that love in this part of the world.  Allow me to make this as clear as I possibly can:  those. people. are. wrong. The God we worship loves you without limit, without condition.  The God we worship will love you all the way to the end.  The gospel is clear:  in a world that has always been far too worried about what separates us and makes us different, the unsurrendering love of God is the thing that unites us in love and makes us siblings in this family God has called together from all across the world.  

The first letter of John says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”  Take this time tonight and consider what it means to be God’s beloved. You, tonight, as you are in this moment, are the intended recipient of God’s unsurrendering love.  The cross is the final proof of God’s relentless, unsurrendering love.  The gospel says “Having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the end.”  You are his own, brought into the body of Christ through your baptism in his name.  You are his own in the world, tonight, remembering the night long ago when Jesus gave us this meal by which we remember his love for us, and in which we are made part of the story ourselves.  Now, friends, know this – to the very last end of all that was, is, or ever will be, you are the object of God’s unsurrendering love.  Believe in that love – live in that love – serve in that love, now and forever.  Amen.

Cultivating Love through Response

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love…So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear…Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

—Ephesians 4.14-16, 25, 29, 31-32—

A few years ago, when my wife Kristin and I were serving a congregation in Iowa, we became friends with John Sheahan, the local middle school principal. John was a member of the other ELCA congregation in our school district, and our churches cooperated on a number of different ministries, including a shared youth ministry program. When John retired from the middle school, he discerned a call into ministry and entered the TEEM program at Wartburg Seminary. I was blessed to serve as a clergy mentor to John during his time at Wartburg; I say “blessed” because I learned as much or more from John as he did from me.

On Prophetic Preaching: A Statement

“As a prophetic presence, this church has the obligation to name and denounce the idols before which people bow, to identify the power of sin present in social structures, and to advocate in hope with poor and powerless people. When religious or secular structures, ideologies, or authorities claim to be absolute, this church says, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority’ (Acts 5:29). With Martin Luther, this church understands that to rebuke those in authority through God’s Word spoken publicly, boldly and honestly is not seditious but “a praiseworthy, noble, and particularly great service to God.’”

So says Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective, the first ELCA Social Statement, passed in 1991. Our confessional witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ has always included a political dimension. The Reformation would have been very different if Luther had not been protected by a politician, Elector Frederick the Wise, following his refusal to recant at the Diet of Worms. Luther regularly exhorted the nobility of his day to provide for the people entrusted to their care, regularly providing private counsel and public statements on the issues of his day. The church and the state being accountable to each other and to God from their respective realms of authority has been a mainstay of Lutheran theology and practice for over 500 years. 

Many people have said a lot of things about Bishop Mariann Budde’s sermon yesterday at the National Cathedral. While Bishop Budde is not sworn to the same confessional teachings as I am, being a minister of the Anglican communion, I found her words to be exactly the thing to which the ELCA committed itself over 30 years ago: a bold, honest, public rebuke of those in authority, an act of advocacy on behalf of those who have neither the power nor the means to offer that word themselves. I applaud her courage and I gladly join her in exhorting those in authority, regardless of their party, faith, or any other affiliation, to realize that their words, principles, and policies will affect more than their supporters, and that they have a duty and responsibility to all of the children of God that have been entrusted to their care.  

A Sermon for Fall Leadership Gathering - "Flipping the Script"

This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
    “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives 
    all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride. 
    I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”

A Response to the 2024 Election

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 

Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, 

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
--Psalm 90.1-2--

Beloved in Christ,

For most of my lived experience, our elections have always involved the fulfillment of some hopes, the dashing of others, and a belief that, win or lose, every citizen and every perspective has a place in the exchange of ideas and dreams that we call American democracy. 

In the aftermath of this election season, however, things are different. Millions of American citizens, for whom dissent, free speech, and due process are constitutional rights, have been labeled "the enemy within" and threatened with prosecution, incarceration, and violence. Immigrants who are here legally under international asylum laws have been victims of hate speech and death threats, as have non-profit agencies and churches who accompany them. These are not partisan complaints from a disappointed voter: these are assaults on the fundamental human rights that undergird every society which seeks to be just, and ignoring these assaults under the guise of patriotism or Christian faith is a denial of the reality in which we currently live. As Lutherans, we believe the theology of the cross requires us to "call a thing what it is." There will be consequences from this election for all of us, and lessons we will all need to learn if there is to be a future for the expansive, robust vision of American democracy many of us hope to embody.

All of us have differing capacities to take in the circumstances and results of this election and what they have revealed about our identity, our priorities, and our moral standing as a nation. I can't say how you should react in this moment, how you should define your existence and inhabit this space that is your life. Whatever marks your dwelling place in this moment, it is between you and God, your dwelling place. Grief, fear, anger, frustration, determination, hope - all of these and more are legitimate responses that deserve their time and space to be experienced and processed. What I can say is this: you are, right now, a child of God who has a dwelling place in God, a place which was never conditional on any victory and cannot be denied to you by any loss. 

That dwelling place in God, however, is not a place of isolation. God is our dwelling place, and that means neighbors, some of whom might not be the neighbors we would choose if it were up to us. None of what lies before us will be easy. Rebuilding relationships shattered by conflict is hard work that requires courage, honesty, and kindness. This is, however, the work to which God our dwelling place has called us: to bind up the broken-hearted, to feed the hungry, to care for those who have lost their dwelling place with God and among God's people. That mission remains the same no matter who occupies the seats of power, and the God who was our dwelling place before the mountains were brought forth will be our dwelling place long after the grass that grows from the seeds sown in this or any election has withered and faded away. 

For now, beloveds, my prayer is that we abide in this dwelling place that is the steadfast love of God. Rest and recover, dear friends. When we're ready, the work will be there for us. 

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Scott Alan Johnson

ELCA Church Council Report

The bishops from each of the 9 regions of the ELCA select one of their number to serve as a liaison to the ELCA Church Council for terms of 4 years. I serve as the Region 4 liaison bishop, and I attended my first ELCA Church Council meeting in Chicago April 11-15. What follows is my own reflections on the meetings; here is the link to the official news release from the Churchwide office.

What struck me most deeply in our time together was the wide scope of our church that is represented in that relatively small body. What we see in our local experience is only one part of who we are as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; sitting with council members from across the country it is much easier to see just what an amazing array of people we are (and the people themselves are pretty amazing in their own right). The denomination is well-served by this group of leaders. 

I’m one of two bishops working with the Faith, Society, and Innovation Committee, and we spent a lot of time wordsmithing two documents: a Social Message on Gun-Related Violence and Trauma, and the draft of the Social Statement on Civic Life and Faith. Both are crucial statements in our current environment, particularly the statement on Civic Life and Faith, which will be in its public feedback period until Sept. 30, 2024. I encourage you to make time to read and provide feedback. 

Other items of note:

• Presiding Bishop Eaton has returned from her time of personal leave and is very much back at work. In particular, she is working toward concrete action steps related to the Future Church and God’s Love Made Real projects, utilizing an implementation team that will be conducting online Town Hall meetings with Bishop Eaton in each region of the church in coming months. She was thankful for the time away to rest and recharge, and for the care given to her in that time, but is excited to move beyond research and studies into concrete action. 
• The co-chairs of the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church commented on a few findings within their work:
• The Commission has been amazed to realize how deeply the influence of the predecessor denominations still affects the ELCA, 35 years post-merger.
• The variety of practices in synods and regions is sometimes a contextual benefit and sometimes not. Some leaders genuinely lead and some are obviously carrying out agendas for others within the church. 
• It is clear that “Who are we?” is a question being asked throughout the ELCA. We have significant difficulty knowing where the ELCA fits as one slice within the worldwide church as a whole. 
• The institutions, organizations, and ministries which relate to the ELCA as separately-incorporated non-profits (think camps, campus ministries, service agencies, etc. which we often know as “serving arms”) are passionate supporters and innovators within the church. There was once some desire to begin referring to this group of folks as a “fourth expression” of the ELCA - it has since morphed into a preference for “related institutions, organizations, and ministries” instead, which has, of course, morphed into an acronym: RIOMs. 

Finally, I’ll end with a reflection from the Rev. Dr. Betsy Miller of the Northern Province of the Moravian Church, who brought greetings as a representative of our full communion partners. In describing the reality she sees as a leader of a church with fewer than 50,000 adherents, she said, “We’re a mission movement. We never should have become a denomination.” As much as the people gathered in Chicago were there to conduct the business of the denomination, I did have a definite sense that the mission, GOD’s mission for the ELCA, was in the midst of all our conversations. I think this will be the challenge of our time as the ELCA: in an age of institutional transformation, will we be captive to supporting the denomination at the expense of mission, or can we pivot to being a mission movement with a denominational structure that supports that mission? I'll be pondering this for a while yet; it's unsettling in the most spiritually enlightening sort of fashion.

Yours in God’s restless peace,

Bishop Scott Johnson  

A Sermon for Christmas Eve 2023 - "In the Mess"

I’ve been a pastor for 20 years, and over all of those years, Christmas Eve services have been and remain some of my favorite worship experiences. Sanctuaries tend to be full, people tend to dress their best (in my case, that only brings so much improvement, but you all look great tonight), and of course, there’s the Christmas hymns that mean the most on this night. 

Sometime during my first few years as a pastor, I came across the option to include a proclamation of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I started inserting it at the end of “Silent Night” for those services. I thought about asking Amy if we could do that here at First this year (because when you’re the bishop you can ask for those kind of favors), but when I read through the text this year, I got stuck in one place. See if you get stuck, too. 

The Proclamation of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ 

The Twenty-fifth Day of December, 

when ages beyond number had run their course from the creation of the world, 

when God in the beginning created heaven and earth, and formed humanity in God’s own likeness; 

when century upon century had passed since the Almighty set a bow in the clouds after the Great Flood as a sign of covenant and peace; 

in the twenty-first century since Abraham and Sara, our parents in faith, came out of Ur of the Chaldees; 

in the thirteenth century since the People of Israel were led by Moses in the Exodus from Egypt;
around the thousandth year since David was anointed King;

in the sixty-fifth week of the prophecy of Daniel; 

in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; 

in the seven hundred and fifty-second year since the foundation of the City of Rome; 

in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace, 

JESUS CHRIST, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, 

desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, 

and when nine months had passed since his conception, 

was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah, and was made human. 

This is the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

It’s beautiful, right? Poetic? Sounds a lot like scripture itself? So - where do you think I got stuck? Some of you probably got stuck here, too:  “The whole world being at peace.” Tonight, war continues to rage in Ukraine, Sudan, Israel/Palestine, and other places. Closer to home, our political leaders squabble and accomplish next to nothing of substance while an endless cycle of violence, blame, and arguments repeats, over and over. I’m 49 years old and I don’t think I’ve ever been more anxious about the state of things in our church, our communities, and our world. We are definitely not a world at peace. 

Line all of that up against this proclamation of the birth of Christ, and what appear to be the cultural expectations of the Christmas holiday, and things get anxious. We strive to give the perfect gift, to enjoy the perfect Christmas meal. Christmas carols started on the radio the day after Halloween in some places, and if I’m honest they sort of sound like a nightmare after two months of solid airplay over and over again, particularly in a year like this year when the weather has been unseasonably warm and not the least bit frightful. It would be incredibly easy to lose hope with so much cognitive dissonance and so many failed expectations. Yet, even in this present anxiety, tonight we gather to celebrate a light that continues to shine. 

Your theme here at First this Advent has been “The Light of Grace,” celebrating the 250th anniversary of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” This is one of our most beloved hymns, for many reasons, but one thing you’ve not discussed much is the origin of the hymn itself. Here’s the story: John Newton was a captain of a slaving ship who got caught in a storm at sea, and after some of his crew were washed over the side, he prayed to God for salvation. After steering the ship through the storm all night, morning found Newton and the rest of his crew safe and saved (to say nothing of the "cargo" of course). It wasn' the last time Newton captained a slaving ship, but it did mark a moment of spiritual conversion for Newton, and in time he became an ardent abolitionist. The story doesn’t excuse who he was or what he did for a living, however. John Newton was a person who had made a living from the capture, transportation, and sale of God‘s children. This is not the story of a simple prayer recited out loud in a revival meeting by a person, feeling guilty about cheating on a test or getting caught speeding. Newton was exactly what the first verse says he was: a wretch. ’Twas grace that redeemed Newton because that’s how grace works. Grace doesn’t apply to the deserving or the perfect. Grace is for those who truly need it. Grace shines best when it shines into the what we most want to hide from the world. 

Just this past Wednesday night, many of us gathered in the mission center for a celebration that included a living nativity, and a prayer service here in the sanctuary. It was lovely. There was something of a petting zoo here as well - a camel as well as some sheep, goats, and other animals - and I couldn’t help noticing that they stayed outside. If we really wanted a living nativity that would re-create what it was like when God came to us in the flesh, we would’ve brought the camel and the sheep and the goats and the llamas and the pigs right into the mission center with us. Now, I’m not actually suggesting we do that, mostly because I’m pretty sure your deacon for faith formation (My wife Kristin) would require me to be the one who shovels out the mess afterwards. But I mention it because there are parts of that story of Jesus’ birth that we don’t acknowledge, because they’re messy. They’re inconvenient. To put it bluntly, they smell. We often tell a sanitized version of the story of Jesus’ birth, and the picture it presents is one of perfection: beatific Holy Child Jesus in the manger (which is filled with sweet, clean hay), beaming Mary resting in peace in beautiful, simple clothing which shows no sign of having just delivered her first child, Joesph silently…being there, stars in the sky, humble shepherds coming to worship (and not losing a one of the sheep entrusted to their care in doing so). There is an entire industry centered around this ideal, this perfection of Christmas peace. The unhealthy danger of this is the anxiety it amplifies in us when things are not perfect in our own Christmas celebrations. What do we do when the gifts are a mess, or when there aren’t any gifts at all because it’s been a hard year? What do we do when family is as much a burden as a blessing, or when we’d give anything for that burden of family because we’re alone? When it comes to Christmas, all too often we are most definitely not a world at peace. 

God did not wait until the world was properly, perfectly prepared to become incarnate. God entered the world as it was, into all the mess, in a scene that in its actual happening would not be the sort of thing that fits ever so beautifully onto a Christmas card. If the world was at peace on that night, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, just a short walk from Jerusalem, it was a peace that had been imposed on the population by Rome, an occupying power from a foreign land. Jesus was born in Bethlehem because the political power of his time told his parents they needed to go to a different city so they could be taxed. Joseph and Mary were refugees in their own homeland; roaming in search of shelter while the world around them was gripped by anxiety and violence. 

This was the world into which Jesus was born on that long ago night in Bethlehem.  

In a stable that smelled of sheep and goats, of hay and dung. 

In the mess. 

Among the wretches. 

In a world that was definitely not at peace. 

Years from now, when I think about Christmas 2023, the image that will live seared into my brain will be this, the nativity at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bethlehem.

  

Yes, this is a statement about the current state of things in Israel/Palestine. 

Yes, that is meant to be rubble of buildings destroyed by rockets and bombs fired by both sides of this horrible conflict. 

Yes, that is the baby Jesus there in the midst of the rubble. 

In the mess. 

Among the wrenches. 

Born into a world that is most definitely not at peace. 

In a minute we’re going to sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” It’s one of my most beloved Christmas hymns because of one line: “…the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” Christmas has never been about a perfect Christmas peace. 

Jesus means to meet us in the rubble. 

In the mess. 

In our wretched anxiety. 

 

Jesus knows we live in a world that is not at peace, and to be honest, rarely has been. Jesus meets us there because that’s how you make this wretched world holy: you start in the rubble. In the mess. You shine the light of grace where it is most needed, and the redemption of the world begins. 

Christmas is wherever Jesus meets us, and in meeting Jesus, we meet peace, wherever he finds us. Merry Christmas, friends. May all your hopes and fears be met in Jesus, tonight and always. Amen.

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent: "Hard to Get"

The gospel according to Matthew.    Glory to you, O Lord.

    When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

    As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

The gospel of the Lord.    Praise to you, O Christ.

    "He emerged from the metro at the L’Enfant Plaza Station and positioned himself against a wall beside a trash basket. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play. 

    It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant….

…No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.” “Pearls Before Breakfast”  Gene Weingarten, Washington Post, 8 April 2007.

2022 Books: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was...not in a great place when I read A Psalm for the Wild-Built. It is now my best read of 2022 for one reason: by the time I finished it, my heart and soul and mind were more at peace than I'd been in months.

I've been recommending this little novella and its successor, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, for months now. They pack a surprising wallop of laughter, joy, humility, simplicity, and peace for such little volumes. I've very much enjoyed Becky Chambers' other novels, but A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a volume I know I'll revisit on multiple occasions in the years to come.

Good books have an impact, so I'll give A Psalm for the Wild-Built my Book of the Year award for this reason: it had, by far, the greatest impact of any book I've read this year.

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2021 Books: Walk the Wire by David Baldacci

Walk the Wire by David Baldacci
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've enjoyed the previous novels in this series much more than I did Walk the Wire. The main character, Amos Decker, remains as sharply written as ever, continuing to struggle with the mental and emotional issues that have marked his story thus far. The pacing of Walk the Wire is ramped up, however, to a frenetic pitch, and the addition of a second plot just leads to jumps in logic and action that feel unjustified and far too rushed.

The second plot is a crossover of characters from another Baldacci series. While other authors have pulled this off well (I'm thinking particularly of Without Remorse, Tom Clancy's masterpiece that details John Clark's origin story), Walk the Wire doesn't hit home with the same impact. Some pieces are in place to make this an excellent story, but it's just too rushed, too busy, too slipshod to work as well as previous entries in this series have done.

All that said, I did devour this one pretty quickly on a brief summer getaway to Minnesota, which can be a lot of fun in its own right. It's not a terrible novel - I've read plenty of those along the way. This one just could have been better, and it's a shame it wasn't. I'll look forward to the next Amos Decker book in the hopes that it'll be more like its excellent predecessors than Walk the Wire turned out to be.

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2021 Books: Cross Sections by Matt Schur

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cross Sections is a thought-provoking, passionate collection of poetry aimed squarely at American Protestant Christianity in the early 21st century. This century has been a target-rich environment for critics of the American church, but what makes this volume particularly poignant is that the author offers his critique from within the institution itself, with an eye toward redemption and healing rather than destruction.

Writing in the vein of authors like Anne Lamott, Martin Bell, and Annie Dillard, these poems are filled with humor, rage, anguish, regret, hope, dismay, reflection, and a thematic underpinning that whatever this age is, it is not the beacon on the hill that large parts of the American Christian community believe it is, nor has it ever been. These poems ask big questions, take big swings, and sometimes make for incredibly uncomfortable reading - the kind of reading that shows you the cracks in the foundations of your thinking and makes you consider whether you've assumed too many things were true that just don't have to be, and maybe shouldn't.

If you're uncomfortable with the way things are, Cross Sections might be a collection of poetry that shows you you're not alone, and gives you hope that the moral arc of the universe is still bending toward justice. If you're comfortable with the way things are, this collection might move you into that uncomfortable place, and then show you you're not alone and give you hope as well. Highly recommended for Christian and non-Christian readers alike.

DISCLAIMER: Matt Schur and I have been good friends for almost 30 years, and I was an advance reader who offered some editorial suggestions for Cross Sections prior to publication. That having been said, I wouldn't post a review if it wasn't genuine, not even for a friend, and I did not request or receive any compensation for this review.

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The Bird that Sang in Color by Grace Mattioli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I accepted a free electronic copy of The Bird That Sang In Color with a promise to post a review when I had finished. I am somewhat regretting that decision because I don't like giving less-than-favorable reviews, save for authors who are either a) dead or b) well-established enough that a lousy review isn't going to harm their livelihood. But I did promise, so here we are.

The Bird That Sang In Color isn't a bad story - I should be clear about that from the start. It's a family tale, one of several in a series told from the viewpoint of several family members. Donna Tucci is the first person narrator of this volume, and it largely deals with her relationship with her brother Vincent. Donna tells her version of the Tucci story, moving through childhood in the 1970s to adulthood in the present day, and there's a lot to tell.

I think the reason I couldn't be more positive about this book is the narration itself. From the first few chapters to the very end, Donna's voice felt scattered and flighty, jumping from one paragraph to another without any real sense of a unifying theme or a clear vision of why this story matters. It felt like a first draft of an autobiography or memoir by someone who isn't actually a very good writer. Entire years get jumped with little warning, it's difficult to keep characters sorted except for Vincent and Donna, and the title seems unconnected to the one element which does move through the entire book, identified in the final chapters. The thought did occur to me that perhaps the disjointed narration is a compositional choice by the author, given that other family members are narrating many of the same events in their own volumes of this series; if so, it's a choice that didn't work for me as a reader. I asked myself "Why?" quite often in reading this book, and didn't get nearly enough answers to that question in the end.

Other reviewers had a far more positive experience, and I'm glad for that, because it means that Grace Mattioli connects with other readers in ways The Bird That Sang In Color didn't connect with me. I'm grateful for the chance to read and review a new author, even if it didn't wind up being what every author would like to hear about their work, and I'd encourage people who've read this far to try the book for yourselves and see what you think. At the very least, the story of Donna Tucci would tell you that happiness doesn't come the same way for every person, and if other readers find happiness reading The Bird That Sang In Color, I'm happy as well.
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2021 Books: Tales by H.P. Lovecraft

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, consider me... whelmed.

I know Lovecraft is a huge influence on Stephen King and many other folks. I can see what so many of them have come to love - when he was on his game, he was fantastic, particularly for his time. But perhaps I should have just stuck with a smaller compendium with At the Mountains of Madness and some of the best short stories, because by the end I was checking out every single time I read the following words: "the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred..."

High points: The Call of Cthulhu, definitely. At the Mountains of Madness and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward were both very good, and I'd never even heard of the latter. It was the longest of the stories, incorporating several different generations and an interesting, very sympathetic main character. The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space, and The Thing on the Doorstep were also new to me, and I'm very much looking forward to watching the movie version of The Colour Out of Space when I've got some free time. But page after page of 1st person narratives s-l-o-w-l-y developing from odd suspicions into full-on terror just starts to sound the same after a while.

It could be that if I actually owned this volume, I could pick it up every now and again to try a story on its own as some sort of palate cleanser, but trying to read it straight through turned into quite a slog before all was said and done.

My recommendation: look for a "best of" version or read Lovecraft one story at a time. Don't be a shoggoth and try to devour it whole - there may be unpleasant consequences for those who do.

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Book Review: Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey

Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Extra time for reading in these days of pandemic lockdown has found me galloping through The Expanse, the excellent sci-fi series from James S.A. Corey. If you haven't read the series but you think it sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the also-excellent television series based on the novels, originally aired by SyFy but picked up by Amazon a few years ago. This is one of those few instances where the book and the movie/show are both excellent and worthy of all the time you can invest in either or (preferably) both.

Persepolis Rising moves the story considerably into the future of the Expanse universe. The crew of the Rocinante are dealing with aging bodies and a desire for changed lives, but as is often the case in this series, circumstances disrupt these plans and the final act of the larger narrative begins in earnest. To say anything more detailed would involve all kinds of spoilers, so I'll just leave the synopsis there and advise you to start all the way back at Leviathan's Wake so you can truly appreciate the story when you get to Persepolis Rising.

What I genuinely appreciate about The Expanse as a whole is the way its authors (James S.A. Corey is the nom de plume for Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham) are determined to build a world in which the science isn't actually fictional. There are no wings on the Rocinante- it flies with a theoretically possible fusion drive and maneuvering thrusters. In space, no one can walk on the floor of a ship without thrust or spin gravity. Speed is governed by how many G forces the human body can endure, not by hyperdrives or warp speeds. I love Star Trek, Star Wars, and all kinds of other space operas, but The Expanse universe is filled with plausible science AND compelling narrative AND deeply developed characters you come to love and despise and pity and cherish. There's so much here that even on this third time reading this novel, I'm discovering new plot points and being delighted by stuff I've forgotten is in there.

The plan is for this series to end after 9 books, and I'm somewhat dreading that final page turn, because I haven't enjoyed a series this much in years - it might rank right up there with The Lord of the Rings in terms of holding the excellence all the way to the end (looking at you, Wheel of Time & A Song of Ice and Fire). Embarking on this series is a big undertaking, but trust me - the journey will be worth it in the end.


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Daily Online Chapel - Powers

Once Midland University made the move to remote classes, I started doing a series of Daily Online Chapel services. Here's today's version:

Living with Grace in Anxious Times

While scrolling through social media recently, I saw a colleague I really respect get blasted by someone in their community. Publicly. That's just one example of some alarming abuse that's been happening lately. Here are some others:

• A pastor receives the agenda for an upcoming Council meeting and "Accomodating Pastor's children in worship" is an agenda item. 
• Online video worship services being critiqued for not being professional enough.
• Pastors observing recommended social distancing & strict visitation policies at local hospitals being criticized for not visiting members in person in the midst of a pandemic.
• Furloughed ministers being asked to continue providing pastoral care for the communities which are no longer paying for that care. 

These are times of high anxiety, fear, and grief. Anxious, scared, and grieving people are rarely capable of exhibiting their best behavior. Even when accounting for the current environment, however, it's disturbing to hear these stories of abuse from colleagues I know are doing everything they can to provide pastoral care to the communities to which God has called them.

In this time of uncertainty, change, and fear, we can present a counter-narrative of faith, endurance, and love. In fact, we already are. The situations I described above are all true, but they are the unfortunate exceptions. I've seen congregations shift to video worship services and graciously laugh about our lack of sophistication & polish. Several congregations have scheduled parades of members, driving past the houses where their ministers live and honking, waving, singing, doing something fun to tell their pastors and deacons they are loved and appreciated. Phone trees have been set up so that every member of a congregation gets a call from a fellow member at least once a week. How many of us have hosted a Zoom Bible Study or caught up with friends at a distance?

Learning one new skill requires a period of trial and error, of failing a little bit less each time until we build up the competency desired. Most of us will never be Tour de France-level bicyclists, but almost all of us learned to ride a bike at some point in our childhood, right? We learned how to ride by falling down until we didn't, until that crazy balance clicked in our minds and bodies. We developed that competency over time, usually in private, and eventually we were able to not even think about how to ride a bike - we just hopped on the seat and took off.

This global pandemic has stripped away most of our former competencies and left us all juggling job and family requirements that were unthinkable less than six months ago. In a sense, we've all been told we can no longer walk, or even ride a bike: everything is on a unicycle now, everyone has to do it, and it all has to be done where everyone can see. We're building new competencies in every aspect of our life and work, all at once. We are falling down - regularly, often, and publicly. It's a painful time to be a person.

This is a time for grace if ever the was one. This should be our primary language in the church, but we've adapted so well to the cultural language of performance and production that grace is an unfamiliar dialect - it sounds familiar, but it'll take some time to be fluent in it again. This is a time for grace with ourselves. This is a time for grace with the limitations imposed on us by this pandemic we cannot control. This is a time for grace with our families and housemates who grow every more wearying and annoying with each passing interminable day of social distancing. This is a time for grace with co-workers who still don't know how to mute video conference calls or don't have a private spot where kids or spouses won't pop into the background. This is a time for grace with Council members who are insensitive or even absent because they're worried about losing their jobs. This is a time for grace with all of this and more. 

We once believed grace was easy, right? Here in the American midwest we are particularly good at the sort of grace that left room for grudges while presenting an outwardly peaceful countenance - the sort of thing Dietrich Bonhoeffer called 'cheap grace.' Now we're discovering how difficult the actual practice of grace can be, and also how essential it will be moving forward in a world which will long remember how we responded in this hour of pandemic. Faith, endurance, and love - this is how we live with grace in anxious times. May God's Holy Spirit fill you with this grace, and may it flow through you into the world around you, now and always.

Book Review: The Last Wish by Andrew Sapkowski

I came to The Witcher from the Netflix series, and in researching the books online the PCGamer website recommended starting with The Last Wish as it establishes Geralt of Rivia and does a fair amount of establishing the universe of these stories.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. This book is basically half of the first season of the Netflix series, and from what I've learned, I expect Sword of Destiny to fill out the rest of that season.

If you liked the Netflix series, you'll like this book. It's obvious the series creators wanted to strike the same tone of moral ambiguity in their show that they found in the books. If anything, the showrunners amped up that ambiguity - Sapkowski paints a kinder picture of Geralt and the world he inhabits.

On the other hand, it's odd beginning a series with a collection of short stories, particularly one which is framed as something like a flashback episode. The framing story involves characters who haven't appeared in the series as of yet, but you get dropped into the story with very little exposition all the same. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to connect with the story if you began with this book having not seen the series.

I think I'll try the first published novel, Blood of Elves, next, rather than follow PCGamer's advice and continue with the next story collection. Perhaps that will seat me in the story a bit more firmly.

On the whole, if you enjoyed any of A Song of Ice and Fire you'll enjoy The Witcher, particularly if you're more a fan of fantasy than you are of political intrigue.

Book Review: Dear Church by Lenny Duncan

"Christianity at its core is subversive. But radical evil wants complacency, not subversion...Radical evil wants walls up around our hearts, around our congregation's life, and around this country. Division is how evil operates. We have all become intractable... 

To walk away from a theological commitment to the least of these is to leave Christ on the cross and ignore what happens three days later. To pretend that this isn't our time to stand up and speak a good word over this world is gross misconduct. If I don't accept this call now, I should be defrocked. If the church doesn't accept this call now, it deserves to die."

Book Review: From a Certain Point of View

From a Certain Point of View by Elizabeth Schaefer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a fun idea: collect a bunch of authors and have them write a tribute album of sorts to Star Wars: A New Hope wherein the stories are told via the eyes of non-central characters. Like most of these volumes, the results are mixed. Some of the stories are daring, original, and well-told. Some, well, aren't. Of particular note for me was Glen Weldon's story of the mouse droid who encountered Chewbacca in the hallways of the Death Star, as much because I enjoy Weldon on NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour" podcast as the story itself.

It was certainly a quick, entertaining read during vacation, which is great because no one wants to be laboring away at tough reading on vacation, right?


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